LWC Community Celebrates Service on Malvina Farkle Day

Posted on Wednesday, September 19, 2012 [7:04 PM]

COLUMBIA, Ky. -- Lindsey Wilson College staff
member Adam Capps got to see Malvina Farkle Day from a different
perspective Wednesday.

For the last four years, Capps had been involved with LWC's annual
day of service as a student. But as the college's new assistant
director of student activities, he saw the event from another
perspective when it was held Wednesday.

"I am more involved now than I was as a student in previous years.
I am more involved in the behind-the-scenes stuff," Capps said. "I am able to see how much planning
goes into the two to three months leading up to Melvina Farkle
Day."

Malvina Farkle Day is an annual day of community service at LWC.
Classes are canceled and offices are closed so students, faculty
and staff can participate in community-service projects. The day is
named in memory of a mythical and legendary Lindsey Wilson alumna
and staff member who was known for her community staff and
practical jokes.

"I think that Malvina Farkle Day is important because it
shows what Lindsey Wilson College is all about," Capps said. "Our
mission is 'every student , every day,' and Malvina Farkle Day fits
in so perfectly with that idea. It is a big deal whenever you can
get 1,000 students to go out into the community and do service. The
jobs they do are jobs that usually wouldn't have been done without
a day like this."

This year's Malvina Farkle Day community-service projects included
more than two dozen sites in Columbia-Adair County.

"There are so many things we can do as a community when we come
together and decide to make a difference in Adair County and
surrounding counties," LWC President William T. Luckey Jr. told students, faculty
and staff in Roberta D. Cranmer Dining & Conference Center
shortly before canceling classes for the day. "Adair County will be
a different place because of what you will do today."

One of the long-term benefits of Malvina Farkle Day is that it
introduces community-service opportunities to members of the LWC
community.

"This is a really great opportunity for them to just to get their
feet wet in that and maybe figure out that's really something they
really love to do," said LWC Director of Student Activities Jayne Hopkins, who is in charge of the
day.

Community organizations also value the day.

"The community is always excited about it. Whenever I call people
and say, 'Would you like to have a group out for Malvina Farkle
Day,' they know exactly what I'm talking about … They love the
help," Hopkins said.

After a morning of community-service activities, the day concluded
with a picnic on the Campus Quadrangle and games.

For freshman Chris Oldham of Lexington, Ky., participating in his
first Malvina Farkle Day was an opportunity to better connect with
Columbia-Adair County. Oldham and other members of the LWC football
program collected trash in Columbia neighborhoods.

"We wanted to keep our community clean," he said. "It also provided
us a chance to talk with and interact with (members of) the local
community. It was great to hear people thank us and have a positive
impact on our local community."

LWC nursing students who helped administer blood-pressure checks at
Walmart said the day's events also provided them with a valuable
and memorable experience.

"I am glad I went because I was able to help give to the community
as well as gain practical skills from it as well," said Josh Pence,
a sophomore from Carrollton, Ky. "Taking blood pressure is
something that we have not yet covered in class so it was nice to
learn something new on the site. It's cool seeing how much impact
we as a college have on the town. Everyone around here supports
Lindsey Wilson, so we should support them as well and show that we
care."

Fellow nursing major Rachel Ray of White Mills, Ky., said Malvina
Farkle Day also reminded her why she chose her major.

"I'm a nursing major so I spend a lot of my time in my room
studying, so I don't get out much. Malvina Farkle Day is a nice
refresher -- it allows me to get out of my room and out of my head
for awhile," she said. "I saw a cute couple who had been married
for 50-plus years who held each other's hands as they got their
blood pressure taken. It was so adorable. It's the small stuff like
that reminds us that we go into our majors to help people like
that. It helps keep us focused on why we are here at college -- it
reminds us that we are doing this for the greater good."

Hopkins said Malvina Farkle Day is a near-perfect example of the
LWC ethos express in the college's mission statement.

"When you see the students and the faculty and the staff and the
community all working together and coming together just to serve
and to get to know one another to build each other up, that is
really the energy of the day and that sustains us and it keeps us
going and reminds us of what we're here to do -- and that is to see
every student, every day, learn and grow and become a complete
human being," she said. "And that's what it's all about."

This year's Malvina Farkle Day community-service projects included
the following locations: